Saturday, December 23, 2006

Homosexuals condemn papal marriage

Homosexuals all over the world condemn the Vatican, under the new leadership of Pope Benedict XVI, for passing a controversial Christmas bull sanctioning papal marriage.

The solemn decree, which was issued on Friday from the offices of the Papal Chancery (registrum bullarum), also allows papal couples to adopt.

This new development is seen as a dramatic step in the rapid secularisation of what was once one of the most devoutly unmarried offices in Europe.

The bull makes Pope Benedict XVI the first pope to be able to marry since Adrian II, pope from 867 to 872. The last papal marriage ended badly when the wife and daughter of Adrian II were carried off and assassinated by Eleutherius, Anastasius the librarian's brother.

Since that time only the Netherlands have approved papal marriage, but due to the relative lack of Dutch popes this has hardly been viewed as controversial.

Rehnquist P. Winterbottom, a spokesperson for the gay community, described the new bull as profoundly iniquitous. He said gay and lesbian Catholics should be prepared to renounce their sexuality rather than co-operate with the Vatican on this issue.

Interviewed in the Italian newspaper Corriere de la Sera, Winterbottom said homosexuals worldwide were making an urgent call for freedom of conscience for Roman Catholics and appealing to them to resist the bull.

He said every profession linked with implementing papal marriage should oppose it, even if it meant losing their jobs.

Winterbottom also insisted that just because something was made a papal bull it did not make it right.

Pope Benedict XVI took office in April 2005, making it clear he intended to make the Vatican a secular state and remove what he called "the Roman Catholic Church's undeniable backwardness on the issue of papal celibacy".

There are likely to be further tensions with the gay community as the Pope has made it clear he intends to streamline papal divorce law and even to relax the conditions placed on papal abortion.

The Pope also stated, in a press briefing Friday, his intention to marry the head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council on the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, and adopt an African choirboy named M’butu.

When asked what title Cardinal Trujillo would assume upon their marriage, Pope Benedict XVI answered simply: "I’m the Pope. Alfonso can be the Mome."